The Oprah Winfrey show-related stories
Posted Feb 26th 2010 5:31PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: TV Royalty, OpEd, Daytime, Talk Show, Reality-Free
It's interesting how quickly the
wonderful Esquire profile of Roger Ebert, written by Chris Jones, rocketed around the interwebs last week. It speaks to the power of two things: a) Ebert's endearing popularity, almost four years after he stopped being an on-camera movie critic, and b) that a well-written magazine profile can give a reader more insight into a person than sometimes talking to the person himself can even do.
But the article, and the stark pictures of Ebert that accompanied it, has led Ebert in some interesting directions. For instance,
he'll be going on Oprah Winfrey's show on March 2 to do his first interview since various cancer surgeries robbed him of his voice, most of his jaw, and his ability to eat and drink. Ebert will speak through the use of a computer.
The two Chicago titans have a long history together; five years ago, Ebert revealed that the two of them even went out on a couple of dates in the 1980s, where
Ebert gave Oprah the idea to syndicate her talk show rather than take it to the network level.
Continue reading Roger Ebert to Appear on 'Oprah' March 2
Posted Feb 16th 2010 10:00AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, OpEd, Daytime, Video, Celebrities, Talk Show, Reality-Free
Oh, my. This is embarrassing... for Oprah. Apparently, she didn't see New Orleans Saints quarterback and Super Bowl MVP ever before in her life. How else can you explain what happened when
Drew Brees was a guest on 'The Oprah Winfrey Show'? Before we go to the tape, a few thoughts.
First, what does it say about the staff research on
'The Oprah Winfrey Show' that something as big as Drew Brees' birthmark, clearly visible on his right cheek didn't make it into the notes?
Nobody ran a little tape on the guy? There were no football cards or an 8x10 glossy? It makes you think that somebody simply handed Oprah a set of cards and said, "Here you go. His team won the Super Bowl. He throws the ball. Go get him, O."
Continue reading Oprah's Oops Moment with Drew Brees
Posted Feb 12th 2010 9:05AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Daytime, Celebrities, Talk Show, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
It looks like
Ellen won't be the new Oprah after all. If I were Oprah, I'd be very relieved. I wouldn't want someone taking over my soul and inhabiting my body solely for "ratings."
Ellen DeGeneres has re-upped her daytime talk show for four more years and will stay on NBC's affiliates through the remainder of her current contract.
This ends speculation that Ellen would "become the new Oprah" in the wake of
Oprah announcing she will end her show in September of 2011. If she did take Oprah's place though, it would have been interesting to see if Stedman came with the deal.
Posted Jan 28th 2010 5:55PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Late Night, Daytime, Celebrities, Talk Show, Reality-Free, Jay Leno
When you look at the surface, it seemed like Jay Leno was quite revealing during his interview with Oprah Winfrey today. He said that he was "devastated" when NBC came to him in 2004 and told him that they wanted to give Conan O'Brien
The Tonight Show. He claimed he was "embarrassed" by what he called "a big mess," and that NBC would have handled it better if "they came in and shot everyone. Then it would have only been a two-day story."
But when Oprah repeatedly tried to get Leno to react to how most of the public is reacting to this story -- that Jay should have stepped aside to give Conan a chance to succeed, and that he is unfairly taking back Conan's dream job -- Leno refused to play along. Not sure if he did so because he's truly not self-aware of what this whole mess looks like or he just doesn't care. But as far as Jay's concerned, this was all just business, and his decision to take back
Tonight and Conan's departure are mutually exclusive events.
Clips of the interview are after the jump.
Continue reading Leno refuses to admit to Oprah that he's culpable in Conan mess
Posted Jan 9th 2010 3:00PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, Music and Variety, Celebrities, Reality-Free
When Oprah made her tearful, but happy, announcement about the ending of
The Oprah Winfrey Show, she committed to making 2010 something special. That was clearly in her mind as
Oprah has reportedly booked Susan Boyle, the Scottish singing star who catapulted to fame in 2009 after appearing on
Britain's Got Talent, for a sit down interview and musical interlude on Wednesday, January 14.
That's right, the six million CD selling Boyle will actually be in Chicago's Harpo Studios. No satellite feed this time. Nope,
Susan Boyle will be able to jump up and down on the couch just like Tom Cruise. Or maybe she can bring her kitty cat, Pebbles, on the set and introduce her to American audiences?
Continue reading Susan Boyle flying to Chicago just for Oprah
Posted Nov 25th 2009 11:32AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, Celebrities, Talk Show, Reality-Free
If you need more proof that the economic collapse is the real thing -- you know, other than your shrinking salary, skyrocketing medical insurance premiums, inability to pay off your credit cards -- here's a major sign.
Oprah Winfrey's decided not to do her annual Favorite Things show for the holiday season. That's right, after seven years of largesse,
The Oprah Winfrey Show has canceled the funfest of goodies.
Huffington Post has learned exclusively that Favorite Things was scrapped. It used to be a Thanksgiving week staple. The reasons are unclear, but it would seem incongruous to celebrate expensive robes, top of the line chocolates, camcorders and the like when so many people are out of work and in financial straits.
Continue reading No Oprah's Favorite Things in 2009
Posted Nov 21st 2009 11:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Celebrities, Talk Show
After watching
The Oprah Winfrey Show today and hearing her teary announcement about her decision to end her syndicated talk show, I had one thought in my head.
Oprah Winfrey is doing a
Johnny Carson. She's writing her own script (no pun intended). Oprah is leaving while she's still wanted, while she's still strong, and by setting the date 18 months down the road, she's giving herself a victory tour.
This is very much like Johnny Carson's decision to leave
The Tonight Show. The difference, of course, is that Oprah's show is not an established landmark entity like
The Tonight Show, which had Steve Allen and Jack Paar as hosts before Carson. No, Oprah was/is
The Oprah Winfrey Show. She will not leave it behind for someone else to inherit the throne. She's taking the throne with her.
Continue reading Oprah's exit is like Johnny Carson leaving The Tonight Show
Posted Nov 19th 2009 6:55PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: TV Royalty, Industry, Daytime, Talk Show, Cancellations, Reality-Free
There had been lots of
speculation that Oprah Winfrey was going to be giving up on her juggernaut of a syndicated talk show soon, but many of those rumors had been dismissed as negotiating ploys or some other silly rumor. Now, however, it seems like Oprah's departure from daytime is official: Tim Bennett, president of Harpo, confirmed that
Oprah will announce on her show tomorrow that she will be ending the program on September 9, 2011.
Not coincidentally, that date is the day after the 25th anniversary of her first nationally-syndicated episode, and she'll mark the anniversary on her last show. Bennett told WCCO that this decision was under discussion for months, but the decision ultimately came down to the big O herself.
Continue reading Oprah to end syndicated show in September 2011
Posted Nov 6th 2009 9:29AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Celebrities, Talk Show, Reality-Free
Yesterday
there was a story on Deadline Hollywood that
Oprah Winfrey would be ending her syndicated talk show in 2011 in order to move over to her OWN cable network. She'd still have a talk show, one based on Los Angeles, but it would not be syndicated. It would be on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), formerly Discovery Health.
Well, after the news was reported all over the place, Oprah's company Harpo, Inc. issued a statement that there would be no announcement until the end of the year. They didn't deny it; they just said the announcement about the switch would be later in the year.
To the average fan, if Oprah stopped her syndicated show, it probably wouldn't matter too much. Most people have basic cable and OWN would probably be a major addition to most cable systems, as well as DirecTV and Dish. Longtime fans would be able to watch Oprah on cable or satellite. No biggie.
Continue reading Is Oprah ending her syndicated show for her OWN show?
Posted Sep 15th 2009 3:12AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Watercooler Talk, Celebrities, Talk Show, Reality-Free
Yesterday was the season premiere of
The Oprah Winfrey Show and the big "get" -- as you probably know -- was a two-part interview with
Whitney Houston. According to Oprah, this was the best interview she's ever done. Now, was that hype or was it really a great interview?
Judging by part one, it was a pretty powerful interview for Oprah. She was on her game. The setting was an empty theater, just Oprah and Whitney. Presumably, this was a no-holds-barred session, so I expected Oprah to ask the tough questions about Whitney's dysfunctional marriage to Bobby Brown, her drug use, the days she spent holed up in a stupor. It wasn't exactly A&E's
Intervention, but for Oprah, it was penetrating.
Continue reading Whitney on Oprah: part interview, part intervention
Posted Sep 11th 2009 7:04PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Programming, Daytime, Talk Show, Reality-Free
Has television come full circle? Oprah Winfrey has her own radio station over on Sirius XM Radio (of course she does). But starting September 14, you'll be able to catch
repeats of The Oprah Winfrey Show on Winfrey's Harpo Radio the day after they air on television. She also plans to air classic episodes from her 20 year run on the radio network.
We've seen radio talk shows, like Howard Stern, Bob & Tom and even Rush Limbaugh, come to television, but this may be the first time the reverse has happened. Certainly it's the first time for Oprah's show. It's an interesting experiment. Satellite radio, like cable television, offers the chance for radio to expand beyond the expectations of over-the-air radio.
That means, radio can explore the world it used to dominate before television took over. Back then, most of our favorite programs were radio programs. Oprah's talk show is a good fit for the audio environment, as you generally don't need to see what she's talking about to get it. But could you imagine our dramas or comedies on the radio?
Posted Jul 10th 2009 10:29AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: TV Royalty, OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
It looks like
The Brady Bunch is going to have to replace Jan again. Eve Plumb is
holding out from appearing on a reunion for
The Oprah Winfrey Show in September due to a disagreement with fellow
Brady alum Maureen McCormick. Apparently during a book tour, McCormick "confessed" in jest to a lesbian affair between the two of them that didn't actually happen.
The lesbian concept sounds like something out of
Not The Bradys (warning: link NSFW). Of course, all
Brady fanatics remember how Eve Plumb opted not to appear in the variety show Hell that was
The Brady Bunch Hour from 1976 to 1977. I wonder if they'll get
Geri Reischl to replace her for Oprah.
I wonder if Eve Plumb did, in fact, get upset by McCormick's comments and if so, why? If it were me, I would have said McCormick was kidding and taken it in stride. Maybe she's holding out for more money from Ms. Winfrey?
Posted Jan 27th 2009 10:33AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Celebrities, Dancing With The Stars
There seems to be an epidemic of blabbermouthing going around these days. First, Vice President Joe Biden's wife Jill lets it slip on
Oprah that Joe had his choice of VP or Secretary of State (snap Hillary!), then Steve Martin reveals that he and Tina Fey will be presenting together
at the Oscars (so much for secret presenters), now Donny's let the cat out of the bag.
While taping
The Bonnie Hunt Show,
Donny Osmond announced that he's doing Dancing With the Stars, the new edition that commences in March.
Oops! See, it wasn't Donny's job to make the announcement. He was supposed to let ABC decide the right time to reveal the lineup of celebrity dancers, although whether they can dance before the show begins is debatable.
Continue reading Loose lips? Swiveling hips? Donny's Dancing with the Stars
Posted Dec 5th 2008 9:31AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Celebrities, Talk Show, Reality-Free
There's a famous scene in
The Godfather: Part III -- the only really memorable one -- where Michael Corleone says, "Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in." I thought of that when I read that
Oprah Winfrey may not be ending her talk show in 2011 after all. What? I thought it was a done deal, but no. Every time I think she's done, she's back again.
When asked by
Access Hollywood about
The Oprah Winfrey Show ending in 2011, Ms. W said, "I'm not done." Well, you sure could have knocked me over with a feather. I mean, really, I understand that it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind, but I really thought Oprah had other worlds to conquer, other fish to fry.
Continue reading Oprah's talk show future might be all her OWN
Posted Jul 11th 2008 8:23AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: News, Casting, Reality-Free
If you're a regular watcher of
The Oprah Winfrey Show, you -- like me -- will recall the powerful reports created by Lisa Ling. The journalist attacks interesting stories and is intrepid and dogged in her reporting. She's found a new place to do her work.
Lisa Ling is joining Nightline.
"I have wanted to work with Lisa for a long time," said James Goldston, ABC News and
Nightlines' executive producer. "She is a terrific journalist with a very distinctive style that fits really well with the
Nightline sensibility."
Lisa will continue with her
Oprah appearances. She will also host
National Geographic Ultimate Explorer.
Lisa's initial report for
Nightline debuts tonight. It's a look at the growth of luxury retirement communities. If you're thinking Del Boca Vista, the
Seinfeld show condominium where Jerry's parents lived, so did I.
Continue reading Lisa Ling joins ABC's Nightline
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